


Arcadia

by rachellemow



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Domestic, Fluff, Future Fic, Humor, M/M, Mentions of Suicide, implied depression
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-19
Updated: 2014-05-19
Packaged: 2018-01-25 17:08:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1656044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rachellemow/pseuds/rachellemow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometime in the future, Stiles picks up a brochure for a place he thinks might be able to help him with the aftermath of the Nemeton and nogitsune. On second thought, maybe this isn't the place for him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Arcadia

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote the bulk of this in January, so it was really before the whole nogitsune element was revealed; however, I tried to rework it so it could possibly work for that too. Also, as much as I love the character of Kira, I'm still not ready to let go of Allison, so she still makes an appearance. 
> 
> My love and gratitude go to Alicia for encouraging me to actually write and also beta-ing this for me. 
> 
> If I missed anything else you think should be tagged, just let me know!

Stiles walked into the bedroom, shuffled around the bed, and collapsed onto his respective side of the mattress. He reached over to grab the brochure he’d been thinking about all afternoon off of his nightstand and sighed loudly as he rustled its pages.  Out of the corner of his eye, he looked at Derek who hadn’t moved since he’d entered the room. He was contentedly reading something on his Kindle and ignoring whatever Stiles was obviously trying to draw his attention to.

 

Stiles rolled his eyes and went back to making a big show of reading through the pages of the brochure.  He made grunts of interest, along with some ‘hmmms’ and ‘huhs’, but was still ignored by the man next to him.

 

“Hey, Derek.”  Nothing. “Hey, Der-bear.”  Barely a change in his breathing pattern.  “Derek!” Stiles yelled, slamming the literature onto his chest. “How hard are you working over there to ignore me?  I’ve been trying to get your attention for like 10 minutes!”

 

Derek put his Kindle to sleep and adjusted his reading glasses before looking over at Stiles.  “Ten minutes is an exaggeration,” he said, rolling his eyes. Then with feigned interest he widened his eyes like a cartoon character and stared at the brochure on Stiles’ chest. “That looks interesting, Stiles. What are you reading? Please, tell me more.”

 

His voice was in a monotone that clearly said, ‘I have no interest in that please let me get back to my book,’ but Stiles played it off like he’d heard something different.

 

“Don’t you love me?” he asked, jutting out his bottom lip to make his wounded face that worked wonders in the first few years of their relationship.  But after being together for a total of eight years, living together for six, and sharing custody of a houseplant affectionately named Scott, his looks of protests were nothing new.

 

“You’re joking, right?” Derek asked, giving Stiles his trademarked grump glare.

 

“Yes, but pay attention to me because I want to show you this! It’s called _Arcadia_ ,” he said with a whimsical air to his voice.

 

Stiles passed the brochure over to Derek for his perusal while he verbally gave him the rundown.

 

“Okay, so I saw this pamphlet at the grocery store and thought it might be a cool thing to try this summer to help with the random bouts of darkness that still pop up.  It’s a retreat in the mountains, and oh my god, Derek, just look at that scenery! They’ve got these life coach people to help you transition out of whatever mess you’re in and help you reach your goals. Keep reading though. You’ll love it.”

 

Derek flipped through the pages and had to admit the photos of the retreat and surrounding area were stunning, places his inner wolf definitely showed an interest for, but things like this tended to have their catch.  He also wasn’t sure he wanted Stiles running off into the middle of nowhere to deal with what he called his ‘darkness’. And besides, they’d found their own rhythm in dealing with it, so why change things up now.

 

“This place sounds like a glorified rehab center,” Derek said. “And the testimonials sound like these people are coming from a really dark, mostly human, place.  Darker than yours even, and you sort of killed people. Why are you even considering this?”

 

Stiles sighed and looked at the ceiling above him as though he were asking the gods why he put up with the brawn with no brains beside him. He’d have thought that Derek would know and he wouldn’t have to explain it, but now that he had to, he knew there was a 65% chance that the next words out of the other man’s mouth would be the beginnings of an argument.

 

“Okay, let me just say this and don’t interrupt or deny it because nothing you say is going to change my mind,” he said.

 

“Stiles—“

 

“That counts!” Stiles nearly shrieked. Derek sighed and waited for Stiles to continue his thoughts. “Ever since that whole thing with Jennifer and the nogitsune, I haven’t felt right. You know it, I know it, my dad knows it, hell, I think most of Beacon Hills knows it. But Scott and Allison seemed to find a way to deal with their crazy, and now they’re having a baby. We’re going to be uncles—“

 

“Danger zone,” Derek said in a flat tone, which was his go to for anything baby related.

 

Stiles just shot him a look, and continued. “Anyway, lupus interruptus, I need to figure out how to get rid of this darkness once and for all. I mean, I’m going to be someone’s role model. I need to better myself in order to better others. Isn’t that how the saying goes? And I know we’ve got this thing managed, but I’d really like to just end it and not have to worry about it at all. Does that make sense?”

 

Derek scooted closer to him and laid his head on his shoulder. “Of course it does. But maybe you could try the therapy route first instead of going off to some woodland retreat where you’re basically isolated from everyone you’ve ever known. Look at this. It says, ‘an encounter with another resident may sometimes occur. On such occasions, we advise you to nod silently once, avert your eyes, and continue on your way’. Stiles, this place sounds like a cult or something.”

 

He looked where Derek was pointing out the passage and in blue and read a callout from another section that said, “You’re alone, you’re in pain, you hate yourself, nobody loves you, you’re fat, you’re ugly, you want to die.” Now that Stiles thought about it, maybe this place wasn’t the right treatment for him exactly since he didn’t really fall under any one of those categories. On the contrary, he was doing pretty well in those areas. His only issue was making sure that he stayed well enough mentally to appreciate how lucky he was to maintain those things in his life.

 

Derek kept reading the brochure, but Stiles lost interest. His mind was already making a list of any therapists he knew in town. There was the one he’d gone to when his mom had passed away, but she only dealt with kids. Maybe she’d make an exception for him since she’d known him when he was younger, or maybe she had a list of adult therapists that could do the job. He was sure Lydia had been to one when her parents divorced, so maybe she’d have someone’s number.

 

“Hmph,” Derek sighed.

 

“What?” Stiles asked.

 

“One of the amenities includes a chest full of different lengths of rope?  Why is that something you’d even _need_?”

 

“I assume it’s a craft thing. You know, working with your hands to forget the sadness?  Like how Allison’s taking up extreme knitting since Scott hid her crossbow? Or maybe you weave your own hammock because they talk about that a little later on.”

 

“Hmm,” was all he got out of Derek as the man went back to his reading.

 

Stiles began to wonder if maybe he should just talk to Deaton about the darkness and see if he had a druid remedy because if he told a therapist he’d come back from the dead, he may end up in an area a little less wooded and a little more padded.

 

“How long do these people stay here?” Derek asked.

 

“Um, I don’t know.  It doesn’t say. I t just says until you reach your goal. You know what though, you were right. I should start local before I start trying to ship myself off to BFE, you know?”

 

“Uh huh,” and of course now that Stiles didn’t want him interested in Arcadia, Derek was engrossed in it.

 

Stiles had had enough thoughts of therapy and retreats for the evening though. He wanted something a little more fun to lighten the mood. He reached over and removed the Kindle from Derek’s chest where it still laid and set it on his nightstand.

 

“This place doesn't sound safe at all. Visiting gorges and caves during the night? Why would they encourage that?”

 

“I don’t know, Derek, but I’m over it. There’s actually another cave I’d like to visit tonight, if you know what I mean,” he said, running his hand down Derek’s inner thigh.

 

“Uh huh, I’m almost finished with this.”

 

Stiles threw his head back on his pillow and closed his eyes.  His dad told him once he and Derek moved in together that the key to any good relationship was never going to sleep angry, but he was about to.  He shimmied under the blankets, rolled over, and turned off the light on his side of the bed.

 

“Uh, Stiles.”

 

Stiles looked over his shoulder at Derek’s face. He was still looking at the brochure, but his face wore a mask of confusion and some other emotion Stiles couldn’t placed as stared at the pamphlet as though the pictures had started moving.

 

“What?”

 

“Do you know what this place is for?”

 

“Uh, I think they make it pretty clear it’s to help you achieve whatever goal you’re chasing. I mean, _you’re_ the one who’s been studying that thing like I was going to quiz you on it.”

 

Derek looked over at him. “Look, I was just trying to take this seriously if it’s what you thought would be the best thing for you and little niece or nephew McCall—“

“Aha! You do want to be an uncle!” Stiles practically screamed.

 

“—but I’m pretty sure this place is worse than cult status. I think it’s actually a retreat for people who are trying to kill themselves.”

 

“What the hell, Derek?!” Stiles said, ungracefully flopping back over to face his partner.  “That’s pretty dark, even for you.”

 

“Stiles, I’m serious. Here, just keep that in mind and read back over some of this stuff.  The ropes, the not talking to other people, their weird witnessing program. It’s all sounding to me like they’re helping you take the plunge.  Literally.”

 

Stiles pulled the brochure out of Derek’s hands and reread a few lines from each heading.  As he went, he could feel his eyes get bigger and his mouth drop open.

 

“Derek…this is a place for people to kill themselves! What the hell? Is this even legal?”

 

The other man just shook his head. “Um, I’m not sure but…”

 

Derek took the pamphlet from Stiles’ hands and threw it off the bed.  He got underneath the blankets and turned out the lamp on his nightstand. He scooted closer to Stiles until his arms were wrapped around him and his chin was resting on his head. “You’re mine, and you’re staying right here. I’ll help you find whatever help you think you need, but you’re not going any further than where I can save you from yourself and you’re definitely _not_ going on some sort of suicide retreat.”

 

Stiles snuggled down into the security of Derek’s arms. Maybe they could just keep up what they’d been doing.  And if Little McCall could accept his or her daddy and Uncles Isaac and Derek turning into fluffy animals once a month, then he or she should be able to handle Uncle Stiles and his little bit of strangeness.

 

**Author's Note:**

> The pamphlet Stiles is referring to throughout is actually based on a short story called "Arcadia" by Steven Millhauser that's featured in Tin House Magazine's Winter Reading (Volume 15, Number 2), but I can't find a copy of the story online anywhere. But yes, it's basically a whimsical brochure for a suicide retreat, and it took me way too long to understand that.
> 
> This is my first foray into fic, so concrit is greatly appreciated!


End file.
